When taking a picture with a self-timer or other remote control device, it is generally difficult to accurately know one's own position within the coverage of the lens or one's own position relative to other objects within the field of view of the scene being photographed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,261 describes a camera having a framing mirror adjacent one side of the taking lens window. The user is then able to observe the picture coverage from a location in front of the camera and accordingly frame the scene to be photographed. This patent also describes a coverage recognition sign, such as a light emitting diode, mounted in an aperture in the framing mirror so that a person in a predetermined position, e.g., the center of the lens coverage, can observe the sign. These aids together assist a user in getting into the picture.
The basic problem with a framing mirror is its limited range. In the aforementioned patent, the self timing portrait taking distance is described to be about 1 meter. Trying to see the small mirror image even at this distance is difficult, and at a larger distance is clearly impractical. Although the light emitting diode in the framing mirror could presumably be seen at a greater distance, it defines only a single point in the frame. The diode is not useful for other positions in the frame, nor does it warn the subject when one is out of the frame.